Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes

Oct 20

Lecture Overview

• Third Wave of Democratization

• Defining Democracy

• Achieving Democracy

• The Sequence of Democratic Development?

• Contemporary Democracy

• Forms of Authoritarian Rule

Third Wave of Democratization

Freedom House

• Freedom House is a “non-government organization” that receives the majority of its funding from the US government.

• This raises questions its independence, and the extent to which it is influenced by American foreign policy.

• Critics argue that it is, in fact, an arm of the American foreign policy regime.

• It publishes “Freedom in the World” an annual assessment of political and civil rights of countries around the world.

• http://www.freedomhouse.org

Defining Democracy

What is democracy?

What is democracy?

• Procedural questions

• Substantive questions

Democracy defined:

Adam Przeworski: “Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections”

Democracy defined:

Joseph Schumpeter: “the democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people’s vote”

Democracy defined:

Seymour Martin Lipset: “First, competition exists for government positions, and fair elections for public office occur at regular intervals without the use of force and without excluding any social group. Second, citizens participate in selecting their leaders and forming policies. And, third, civil and political liberties exist to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation”

Potential forms of democracy; Other spheres of democracy?

• direct democracy?

• participatory democracy?

• social democracy?

• industrial democracy?

• workplace democracy?

• economic democracy?

Achieving Democracy

Göran Therborn, 1977. “The Rule of Capital and the Rise of Democracy.” New Left Review. May/June. No. 103.

(journal available online via library catalogue)

Therborn (1977)

Chapter 5: Democracies

Developing democracy (1/5)

According to Dahl (1966) there were three milestones in the development

of democracies:

(1) Incorporation

(2) Representation

(3) Organized opposition

Chapter 5: Democracies

Developing democracy (2/5)(1) Incorporation:

Before the “first wave” of democratization several restrictions to the

right of vote existed: Census voting (wealth), capacity voting

(education), race, gender, age.

Gradual extension of voting-rights during the “first wave” in the 19th

century:- 1848: Universal male suffrage introduced in Germany, France

and Switzerland- 1893: Universal female suffrage introduced in New Zealand

Since then no further extension, except the lowering of the age

threshold. Still widespread voting restrictions to foreign residents .

Chapter 5: Democracies

Developing democracy (3/5)

(2) Representation:

The right to organize parties and to have them represented in

parliament.

One indicator: Shift from majoritarian voting to proportional voting (first

time introduced in Finland 1907).

Fear of established parties from mass-mobilization by the new parties.

Chapter 5: Democracies

Developing democracy (4/5)

(3) Organized opposition:

The right of the opposition to vote against the government.

One indicator: First acceptance of socialist parties into government

(first time in Australia in 1904).

The capacity of parliaments to effect full executive turnover varies

significantly between liberal democracies.

The net shift of votes from government to opposition (=incumbency

volatility) doubled from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Chapter 5: Democracies

Developing democracy (5/5)(3) Organized Opposition (continued):

The older and more established democracies reached these

milestones one by one, and over a long period of time.

The newer democracies have reached these milestones more or less

simultaneously.

The Sequence of Democratic Development

Sequencing Political Development

• “First, there should be a national identity producing national unity”

• “Second, there follows the establishment and institutionalization over time of state structures which are legitimate and effective”

• “Third, various elite groups then engage in competition with each other, usually by forming rudimentary political parties”

Sequencing Political Development

• “Fourth, if not already existing (as in republics), there is the establishment of responsible government, by which monarchs and nobles give up their political power to elected governments”

• “Fifth and finally, there is a slow expansion of voting rights until there is universal suffrage”

Siaroff, Alan. 2005. Comparing Political Regimes. Peterborough:

Broadview Press.

Contemporary Democracy

Chapter 5: Democracies

Audience democracy? (1/1)

Despite the “success” of democracies, there is evidence that their

foundations are becoming less robust:• Declining levels of participation and growing indifference to politics• Decreasing confidence in politics

As a result, decision making is more and more depoliticized:• Down to citizens (referenda)• Up to non-political agencies (e.g. international organizations)

This replacement of representative features of democracy has been

labelled audience democracy (Manin 1997).

The “golden straightjacket”

• "Once your country puts [the Golden Straightjacket] on, its political choices get reduced to Pepsi or Coke – to slight nuances of taste, slight nuances of policy, slight alterations in design... but never any major deviation from the core golden rules.” - Thomas Friedman

Forms of Authoritarian Rule